Upgrade work continues to prepare railway line for electrification

Tuesday 6 Dec 2016

Upgrade work continues to prepare railway line for electrification

Region & Route:: | Wales & Western: Western; | Wales & Western

Network Rail’s orange army will be out in force over the Christmas period as upgrade work continues in Chippenham ahead of electrification.

Workers will be on the track working through the night on Christmas Eve, Christmas Day and Boxing Day as Network Rail look to install the piles used to support the cables that allow electric trains to run.

The work would ordinarily take several months if carried out over weekends but the Christmas period, when the railway is typically 50% quieter, allows for a substantial amount of work to be carried out in a much shorter space of time.

Ahead of the work Network Rail has worked closely with Wiltshire Council to ensure any disruption is kept to a minimum for those living near the railway.

Tom Boreham, Scheme Project Manager for Network Rail, said: “The period over Christmas when no trains are running is a vital time for us to upgrade the railway. It allows us more working time so we can achieve greater numbers of installed foundations per shift, which means we haven’t got to return to the area over a prolonged period of time. We have contacted all of the residents who live near to the railway to inform them of the work and invite them to our information sessions held in Chippenham in the lead up to Christmas.”

The piling work will take place on Christmas Eve from Bath Road to the B4528 railway bridge, on Christmas Day from Bath Road to Ivy Lane and on Boxing Day from Ladyfield Road to Chippenham station.

People who wish to find out more are invited to attend a community engagement session that is being run by Network Rail. They will take place on the following dates.

Wednesday, 7 December: Town Centre (10am - 5pm)
Saturday, 10 December: Olympiad Leisure Centre (9am - 12noon)
Monday, 12 December: Chippenham Station (7am – 10am and 4pm – 7pm)
Friday, 16 December: Town Centre / Market Day (10am – 5pm)
Monday, 19 December: Chippenham Station (7am – 10am and 4pm – 7pm)

Network Rail will also be contacting those living close to the railway directly ahead of the upgrade work. Passengers are being urged to check before they travel this Christmas by visiting nationalrail.co.uk/Christmas.

Contact information

Passengers / community members
Network Rail national helpline
03457 11 41 41

Latest travel advice
Please visit National Rail Enquiries

Journalists
Network Rail press office -Western route
MediaRelationsWestern@networkrail.co.uk

About Network Rail

We own, operate and develop Britain's railway infrastructure; that's 20,000 miles of track, 30,000 bridges, tunnels and viaducts and the thousands of signals, level crossings and stations. We run 20 of the UK's largest stations while all the others, over 2,500, are run by the country's train operating companies.

Usually, there are almost five million journeys made in the UK and over 600 freight trains run on the network. People depend on Britain's railway for their daily commute, to visit friends and loved ones and to get them home safe every day. Our role is to deliver a safe and reliable railway, so we carefully manage and deliver thousands of projects every year that form part of the multi-billion pound Railway Upgrade Plan, to grow and expand the nation's railway network to respond to the tremendous growth and demand the railway has experienced - a doubling of passenger journeys over the past 20 years.

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